Pokemon Platinum Nuzlocke

Hey, quick update, new Infinite Potential chapter is aaaaalmost ready, just doing last last fixes and adjustments, it should be published on Friday so you can check it over the weekend

Now, on to the pointless stuff that most of you aren't interested in

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So, as I had mentioned previously somewhere in those ass-long blog posts I write every now and then, sometime ago I had started a Platinum Nuzlocke run. And now that I am finally about to challenge the Elite Four and Champion and finally finish it, I thought I will bring you up to date with my team, deaths, and ask for your opinion and last minute advices you might have^^

Quick explanation to what a Nuzlocke run is, to those who don't know: it's a self imposed challenge to make the Pokemon game actually challenging (because lets face it, grinding - which practically disappeared with the newer games - aside, it's ridiculously easy). There are two main rules:

1. You can only catch the first Pokemon you run into in each area. Exceptions from that rule are repeats and evolution families, like, if you caught a Rattata but don't evolve it, if in new area you first run into a Raticate you can count it as already caught and ignore it. If the Pokemon you try to catch dies you can't catch anything in that area.
2. If your Pokemon gets knocked out in battle, it's considered dead. You have to release it or put it in box titled "Death" or "Dead", et cetera. I prefer the second option, as it lets you look back on your losses and relieve your failures.

Aside from that, there is the main additional rule that you have to give each Pokemon a nickname, to build an emotional bond with them and feel shitty when they die. Of course, there are a few other additional rules that people have that are less important, like no items and such, or that a wipe is treated as "game over", personally I might just use Pokemon from the box if that would happen, but I digress.

Now, I previously had mentioned the state of my team, but as not everybody wants to check out those ridiculously long blog posts, here's what I wrote last time:

... I need to mention the few losses I have suffered along the way:

- Solidsnake the Onix, level 21, named after Solid Snake from Metel Gear franchise. Died tragically in a double battle against Buizel when his stupid trainer though both of his Pokemon would be faster than Buizel and kill it.
- Gaia the Grotle, level 26, my starter, named after Greek personification of Earth (because it was a female). Died tragically battling Fantina, the Ghost type gym.
-Leo the Luxio, level 24, named after Leo from the Jungle Emperor anime (eng. Kimba from Kimba the White Lion), died against one of the ghost trainers in that Ghost tower.
- Huan the Flareon, level 34, named after Huan the great wolfhound of Orome from Tolkien's Silmarilion, friend of Beren and Luthien. Yeah, I know, Flareon is basically the second worst Eeevolution, right after Glaceon. But when I evolved him, I still had an Electric type (Leo), Grass type (Gaia), Water type (still alive) and Psychic type (still alive), but I had NO Fire type, so I figured despite his awful stats and movepool matchup he would do (and then I caught a Fire type). Died tragically when I got into a double battle which started with a very unfortunate typing for both my Pokemon, opponents were Raichu and Gyarados. I priorited killing Raichy to save my other Pokemon, but unfortunately Gyarados hit Huan with Aqua Tail and one-shotted him.
- Solaris the Ponyta, level 38, named after genderbent Princess Celestia. Died tragically against random trainer with a Machoke three levels before evolving into Rapidash.

Those are the unfortunate fallen of the run, most of which happened due to my stupidity. I hope I won't lose anybody else, but I'm barely half-way there. Now, my current team:

- Leviathan the Gyarados, level 37, named after biblical sea monster/Supernatual monster
- Samael the Gabite, level 36, named after Samael, the original name of Lucifer (at least, in the Lucifer tv show), aka the Devil, because of the joke Jaiden from Jaiden Animations made in her Platinum Nuzlocke animation, where she called Cynthia's Garchomp "made by Satan himself"
- Adam West the Crobat, level 36, named after the actor who played Batman in the sixties tv show and who unfortunately passed away a few years ago. I chose this name because, in the few Nuzlocke runs I attempted in the past, I would ALWAYS catch a Zubat and name it Bruce Wayne (strangely I always caught males), and they would all die before I could evolve them into Golbat. So this time decided to pick a different name, aaaand it worked.
- Epsilon the Porygon2, level 38, named after AI program from Red vs Blue (I have N3DS and NDS with almost all 4th gen games, so evolving through trading isn't a problem)
- Deli the Gallade, level 37, named after Deliverance from Infinite Potential, because when I caught it as a Ralts it skipped my mind somehow that I could turn it into Gallade and thought it would become a Gardevoir, and Deliverance looks very feminine despite being male (which is something you can thank one of my editors, TimePrincess, for, btw).
- Vasto Lord the Dusknoir, level 37, newest addition to replace Solaris who was meant to replace Huan (because it can learn Fire Punch), named after Vasto Lorde, a class of Hollow from Bleach anime.

Lastly, a few back-ups I already have prepared to take a spot if I get somebody killed again, and two honorable mentions:
- Jack the Togetic, level 27, named after Jack from Supernatural; Jack is a nephilim, son of Archangel Lucifer, and Togetic was given to me as an Egg by Cynthia who, again, has a Pokemon made by Satan according to Jaiden Animations. On the bench because you can't get the stone to evolve it into Togekiss until after 6th gym badge if no later and I'm afraid I will get it killed as it is. When I finally evolve it I'll probably swap Jack for Adam West.
- He-Man the Machamp, level 28, named after He-Man from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Revelations (because I highly enjoyed the series and was annoyed to see the reaction of 40 year old men to the show -_-). On the bench because Gallade is better, basically.
- Jagienka the Bibarel, level 17, named after a character from one of the best novels from Poland, "The Knights of the Cross"; she helps the main character hunt beavers because their fat would help cure his uncle... or something along those lines I read that thing in middle school so about 15 years ago. HM slave.
- Mallory the Starly, level 4, named after Mallory Archer from Archer tv show... because she named her son Sterling and it's kinda like starling and that's the animal this Pokemon is based on? Defog HM slave.

Yeah, so, now that I'm almost at the end of the game, I naturally suffered more losses. Hell, I suffered TWO losses about few hours after I've made that previous blog post!

- Samael the Gabite, level 37, died in Steel type Gym, to one of the trainers there who had a Scizor. Yeah, this one hurt.
- Vasto Lord the Dusclops (yeah, confession, I mentioned earlier that he was a Dusknoir, but in fact he wasn't; he was still a Duskull when I wrote that blog post, but he was level 36, about 20 exp. points from level 37 and evolving, and I was sure I already had the Reaper Cloth in the bag to make it further evolve, buuuut I didn't ), level 39, died to one of the trainers on Iron Island who had a Raichu.
- Tank the Bastiodon, level 46, named after... well, his role in the team. I enjoyed having bulky Pokemon like Dusclops on the team, so I thought he would be a good replacement. Ridiculously defensive, I slapped Toxic TM on him xD Sadly, he died while training, mostly because of my idiocy, a trainer had a Machoke I thought Tank could take because of his high defense.
- Iroh the Magmortar, level 51, named after General/Uncle Iroh from Avatar the Last Airbender show. Oh boy, this loss hurt, too. Brought him as replacement for Samael, after his death I decided I had too many physical attackers on the team, so needed a special attacker, plus he would be perfect for both Steel and Ice Gyms, and for the Elite Four member who uses Bug types. I got extremely lucky to catch him as Magmar, I had about equal chance of getting a Magnemite in that area (which would also be good, but less perfect). Unfortunately, he died on Victory Road, literal last stretch, to trainer's Porygon-Z's freaking Hyper Beam.

Okay, so, here's the team with which I plan to take on the Elite 4 (after they level up, of course):
- Epsilon the Porygon-Z, level 54, with Signal Beam to counter the Psychic Elite4, and Ice Beam as back up Cynthia's Garchomp
- Jack the Togekiss, level 55, as previously mentioned replaced Adam West the Crobat after I was finally able to evolve it. Counter for Bug type Elite4, and Psychic's Gallade, primarily.
- Leviathan the Gyarados, level 52, planning to use it against Ground and Fire guys, but need to be careful as Ground types know a lot of Rock type moves, and Fire's have Electric-type moves. Also one of my counter's against Cynthia's Garchomp, knows Ice Fang, and maybe I'll try to stockpile Dragon Dances.
- Deli the Gallade, level 52, counter for Psychics and some of the Ground and Fire.
- and last addition, Thumbelina the Budew, level 30. Yeah, caught this one way back at the start, at level 10. But after losing special attacker like Magmortar, I realizes that I need some good counter for Ground type Elite4, as she has some very bulky part Rock types there who fortunately lack in Special Defense department. Roserade seems like the perfect option. Just need to find another Shiny Stone...

Ah, you might have counted 5 there. Well, that's because I'm not decided on the 6th Pokemon. I have two options:
- Metalsnake the Steelix, level 52. Caught it on Iron Island with help of Vasto Lord (yeah, I had an Onix so I didn't need to catch it, but I had everything else on that island already and Steelix was first Pokemon I met there that I didn't officially caught). Picked her up to replace Tank, and so I had a good counter for Electric type Gym. Still came awfully clause, his Raichu knew a freaking Focus Blast, got her health to red, needed to spam Hyper Potions until the Raichu finally missed. But anyway, we won, and I planned to have her as another counter for Cynthia's Garchomp (yeah, he's so scary I have 3 counters for him!) as she is defensive enough it should survive an Earthquake or two (plus I taught her Magnet Rise to make it be unaffected to Ground moves for 5 turns), and she knows Ice Fang. Sadly, she doesn't counter much else... Bug types, yeah, sure, but loses to Ground and Fire, and Psychics are mostly Special Attackers. Oh, and named her after Solidsnake the Onix
- Therazane the Rhyhorn, level 41, caught her on Victory Road, named her after Therazane the Stone Mother, the Elemental Lord of Earth in Warcraft. If I'd evolve her into Rhyperior, which is a BEAST, it would be a perfect counter for Bug and Fire, and thanks to it's ability (as Rhyhorn she has Rock Head, meaning as Rhyperior she would have Solid Rock which reduces damage from super effective moves) it should survive against Ground attacks.

So yeah, can't decide which of those two is better, Therazane would cover more types but Metalsnake is better against Garchomp and I grew attached to her after she helped me get my 8th Badge, I already feel bad about benching Adam West the Crobat, one of the two surviving members of my original team (the other surviving member being Leviathan the Gyarados; Solidsnake the Onix, Gaia the Grotle, Leo the Luxio and Huan the Flareon had all died). But I need to pick one, they are two similar to keep both and kick somebody else.

I would appreciate some thought on the matter

Some other "highlights" from my Nuzlocke run:
- all of my Pokemon nearly DIED to Cyrus in the Distortion World, he brought my entire team's health (5 of them, as I needed to have the HM slave tag along) to red, except for Gyarados, and it's only because his Houndoom's Thunder Fang missed, pretty sure it would have killed me
- Got Giratina into Master Ball, not gonna fight that thing, and not gonna use it because it's too OP for Nuzlocke run... or run in general, I usually don't use legendary Pokemon against the League.
- I missed a freaking Electabuzz encounter, killed it by accident, and I am still kicking myself over it.
- missed out on Gastly, too, little shit used Curse after I brought its health low

I have a few more Pokemon in the box:
- Cthulhu the Tentacruel
- Tyke the Mantyke
- Killer Bee the Remoraid (meaning I can evolve Mantyke into Mantine, fun evolution mechanic but unfortunate for Nuzlocke runs)
- Ice Queen the Sneasel
- Winter the Snorunt
- Pryce the Snover
- Sigismund the Bronzor
-Bismuth the Geodude
-Amphibia the Croagunk
-Mo'ai the Nosepass
- Mallory the Starly
- Annabelle the Girafarig
- Tails the Buizel
- Deep Pink the Shellos
- Cherrybomb the Cherubi
- Danny the Rotom (sadly with no option to change its form)
- Big D the Unown (so useless)
- Pikablue the Marill
- Jingle the Chingling (ugh, the only thing in that place I hadn't caught, otherwise I could have caught another Dusclops!)
- Bertha the Wooper
- Flying Rat the Wingull (hate those things)
- Sentinel the Noctowl
- aaand finally, Jagienka the Bibarel, my HM slave.

Ah, and of course, on the bench:
- Adam West the Crobat, level 42
- He-Man the Machamp, level 28

So yeah, not all the best selection, but I should be able to scramble a team out of them if I should wipe.

Anyways, I rambled too much, it's starting to resemble my usual blog post in the terms of length. Hope you found it entertaining at least, and if you can offer some advice, especially regarding whether I should go with Metalsnake or Therazane, I would really appreciate it^^

Comments

[Snowliasion]

It's been long since I did any nuzlocke but I think I'd bring the rhyhorn.

[Reese]

Good luck!

I don't have any advice for you, though; my primary strategy in Pokemon games has, as far as I recall, pretty much always been "Overlevel starter to the point that types can mostly be ignored, have them do pretty much all the fighting, and fill the rest of the team out with utility pokemon and maybe one I'm trying to level up for the pokedex or the like".

[kittou08]

platinum can be hard in a nuzlock, i still have nightmare about the league & Cynthia… that garchomp is a spawn of hell o_0